


The Enemy Within

by Mithen



Category: World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Friendship/Love, Gen, Good and Evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 11:37:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11508633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: Slightly before Backlash and his match with AJ Styles, Kevin wanders into a weird room and emerges as two people--one brutal and vicious, the other... not.  Sami has a version of his friend back!  This is wonderful!Isn't it?





	The Enemy Within

**Author's Note:**

> Based on ideas lobbed at me by the amazing Mrs_laugh_track a long time ago.

Sami knew something was wrong the moment he saw Kevin Owens in the locker room at Smackdown Live, the moment Sami swung open the door and Kevin _smiled at him:_ a bright, lovely smile that seemed to light up his face.

“Sami!” Kevin said as if he were happy to see him, and his _voice_ was all wrong too: it was higher and softer somehow. Everything about him seemed gentler, younger--but not like any version of Kevin that Sami had ever known at any age, no. Kevin had come with all his hard angles in place from the moment Sami had met him, even when they were friends. This was a Kevin with all those sharp edges inexplicably sanded down. He looked, somehow, like the pleasant guy who might take your coffee order or tell you to have a nice day as he finished bagging your groceries.

Then the smile suddenly wavered and confusion clouded his face. “No, that’s not…” Kevin said under his breath. “Wait.”

Before he could think better of it, Sami sat down next to him. “Are you okay?”

“I…” Kevin glanced at him, then away. There was an odd shyness in the motion. “I don’t know,” he said. “I got a little lost backstage and wandered into this really weird room.”

“You mean the one where Dean keeps his shirtless pictures of Baron Corbin?”

Kevin chuckled: a light almost-giggle that crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Not that room. It was pitch black and there were galaxies painted on the walls in the strangest colors, like in glowing paint. And there was this high-pitched sound, and it made me feel… I got kind of dizzy? So I sat down on the floor for a little while. And when I woke up, my title was gone.” 

“What?” AJ Styles broke in, appalled. “You can’t _lose your title,_ Owens! Backlash is in two weeks and you damn well better be ready to hand it over!”

Kevin winced, but turned away from Styles’ ire to keep talking to Sami. “I reported it immediately, but then we couldn’t find the room again, and… and no one believed me. When I saw you I immediately thought ‘Sami will believe me, Sami will help me,’ but…” Kevin swallowed. “But that’s ridiculous, why would you?” He covered his mouth with a hand. “But I don’t know what to do,” he whispered.

Sami frowned at him, trying to put his finger on what was so wrong with Kevin. He was upset about the missing title, of course, but it was more than that. “I mean, of course I’ll help you look for the title,” he said.

An incredulous smile lit Kevin’s face. “Would you _really?_ ” he said. “Because that would be--”

He never finished his sentence, because they suddenly heard Kevin’s entrance music blaring. 

Kevin jumped to his feet, appalled. “My match against Corbin! Why didn’t someone come--”

He stopped dead--everything in the locker room stopped dead--as on the screen _Kevin Owens _swaggered to the ring. Everyone stared at the Kevin standing next to Sami, who looked down at himself as though unsure he were really there either. “Who the hell is that?” he said blankly.__

Sami watched as the doppelganger got in the ring, feeling his frown deepen. Because in some ways he looked more like Kevin than the man standing next to him did. There were the sharp angles, the fierceness, the ferocity: he moved like he was intent on maiming someone, and there was a cruel set to his mouth that Sami remembered all too well. And yet in other ways he didn’t look at _all_ like the Kevin Owens Sami knew. He looked closed-off, walled-away. He didn’t seem to be taking in the crowd at all. And… Sami shook his head impatiently at the poetic thought, but there was no other way to put it--there was a light in his eyes that was missing. Everything about him was cold and calculating, cunning but empty. 

“He’s got my title,” Kevin said in anguish, and Sami realized that indeed, the Kevin on the screen was handing over the US championship to the referee. “ _My title._ I have to--” He started forward, then stopped. “No, can’t interrupt the match, I…” His fists clenched and he looked at Sami, irresolute.

“We’ll figure it out after the match,” Sami said. “I promise.” He put a hand on Kevin’s arm without thinking. “Let’s wait and see what’s up.”

The match was… odd. The person who looked like Kevin was even more vicious than usual, his movements brutal and calculated to damage. But there was a simplicity to them that wasn’t like Kevin at all; he didn’t try a moonsault or a frog splash or even a cannonball, it was all just kicks and clotheslines, simple aggression. Corbin took a lot of offense early on, but after a couple of minutes he adapted and started to dodge Kevin’s attacks, which grew increasingly desperate and wild. Kevin finally charged furiously right into an End of Days, which left him crumpled in the center of the ring for the pin.

“Thank God this wasn’t a title match,” Kevin breathed beside him. “I don’t know if I could convince anyone he wasn’t me, he looks exactly like--who _is_ he?”

“I’ve got a weird hunch,” said Sami. “Hold on.” Pulling out his phone, he dialled a number.

Cody Rhodes’ face appeared on the screen, handsome and sullen. “What the hell do you want, Zayn?”

“Okay,” Sami said, while at his side Kevin stared at him. “So Kevin wandered into a weird room with lots of galaxies on the walls and stuff--”

Cody’s face went closed and suspicious.

“--And now there are two of him, and I was kind of wondering if maybe this had something to do with, uh… you?”

“It’s got nothing to do with me,” Cody snapped. “Nothing at all.”

“Oh,” said Sami, chagrined.

Cody looked over at Kevin and a touch of pity flickered in his eyes. “But it might have something to do with… with _Stardust,_ ” he said, spitting out the name as though it pained him. “The Star Room was designed to deal with...duality. I thought I had locked and concealed it better when I departed.”

“So wait,” Sami said, pinching the bridge of his nose. He handed the phone to Kevin so he’d have both his hands free. “Are you telling me your Star Room might have...split Kevin in two? _I have to deal with two Kevin Owens now?_ ” 

“Hey,” Kevin said in soft protest, although Sami wasn’t sure if it was at his words or the fact that one of Sami’s gesturing hands had clipped his ear.

Cody’s eyes flicked nervously from side to side. “Look, I can’t talk right now. Maybe later. I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”

His picture disappeared.

Kevin looked up from the phone at Sami and there was panic in his eyes. “So we’re both… me? Or I’m not really me? I don’t know--”

_“--You,”_ snarled a familiar voice from the doorway, and everyone looked up as the other Kevin swaggered into the room, the title over his shoulder. “Are you still here? Shouldn’t you be dissolving into a puddle of mush or something?”

“What do you mean?” Sami said. Kevin was standing very close to him; Sami could feel a tremor in the arm pressed against him.

“I woke up in that stupid room with _this_ sack still snoring on the floor,” the second Kevin said with a sharp dismissive gesture at his double, “so I took my title and left.”

“It’s not your title,” the Kevin next to Sami said, sharp and pained. “It’s not. It’s mine. I earned it.”

“I _took_ it off of Jericho,” said--Owens, Sami was just going to have to call him.

“I _won_ it,” Kevin said, staring at it with yearning.

There was a long silence in which everyone watched the two Kevins facing each other with interest.

“Hold up just a minute here,” Shane McMahon’s voice broke in. “Oh geez,” he said, looking between them. “I hate dealing with doppelgangers.”

“Does this happen _often_ in the WWE?” Sami heard his voice spiral in disbelief.

“It hasn’t happened for a while,” Shane admitted. “We’ll just do a quick DNA test on the two of you to see if you’re identical or not--that’s standard operating procedure,” he said, holding up his hands as Owens snarled at him. “If you are identical, usually we let you take turns in matches. But until you get this straightened out, no run-ins--I don’t want to see both of you on camera at the same time _ever._ You got it? I will fire both of you if I have to.”

Both Kevins nodded eventually and Shane sighed and went off to grab a trainer. The rest of the wrestlers in the locker room went back to changing or gossiping, though they continued to cast curious glances at the twins.

_This is the weirdest workplace in the world,_ Sami thought.

“Two wrestlers for the price of one,” Kevin said to Sami as the trainer pricked his finger and took a blood sample. “This is actually a good deal for the WWE, I guess.” Sami couldn’t help but chuckle just a bit at that. “I wonder if--hey!” He took a step toward where Owens was grabbing a bag out of a locker. “That’s my bag,” Kevin pointed out. “My wallet and ID and everything.”

“You mean _mine,_ ” said Owens, slinging the bag over his shoulder. He tilted a sneer at Kevin, his face brutal and mocking. “What are you gonna do, fight me for it?”

Kevin put his fists up and stepped forward, but then he wavered. Sami saw him bite his lip. His shoulders slumped. “But… where will I stay?”

“I’m not sharing a room with you,” Owens said.

“Trust me, I don’t want to share a room with _you,_ ” Kevin snapped back.

“You can stay with me,” Sami said without thinking, and Kevin gave him an amazed look.

“You deserve each other,” Owens scoffed. “So long, coward,” he waved at Kevin and strolled out.

Kevin stared after him. “I wasn’t scared,” he said under his breath. “I wasn’t!” he added more loudly, as if Sami had argued with him. “I just… I could see so many different ways the fight could unfold. I could have gone for his eyes, or grabbed the title to hit him with, or powerbombed him onto a bench, and--there were too many options. I couldn’t decide.” He took a breath. “But I wasn’t scared.”

“I know,” said Sami.

“You… you _do,”_ said Kevin, looking almost puzzled. “You believe me.”

“This is like that Star Trek episode, isn’t it?” Sami was almost relieved when Xavier Woods’ voice cut into the silence between them. “You know, the one where the transporter goes wrong and splits Kirk into Good Kirk and Evil Kirk. Cool.”

Kevin stared after Xavier as he headed out of the locker room. Then he looked at Sami with confused wonder in his eyes.

“Which one am I?” he said.

* * *

“...he can’t beat Okada. Okada’s the face of New Japan, he’s not going to give up that easily, no matter what.” Kevin was propped up on the second bed in Sami’s hotel room, hands waving wildly as he argued with Sami about Japanese wrestling. There were pizza boxes sitting on the end table along with a half-empty bottle of Pepsi.

“Did you _see_ that match at Wrestle Kingdom? Kenny was so close, man. Next time…”

“Of course I watched it!” Kevin looked offended at the idea he might not have. “I’m just saying that deep, _deep_ down where it matters, Kenny’s heart isn’t in it like Okada’s is. There’s always a tiny part of him that feels like he doesn’t deserve it--”

Kevin stopped talking abruptly and looked pained for a second, and that fleeting look brought Sami back to the weird reality they were dealing with. He’d almost forgotten entirely while the conversation had ranged through Chuck Taylor and Kassius Ohno and whether working for Dario Cueto would be _that_ bad, the kind of conversation Sami hadn’t had with Kevin--with _anyone_ \--for what seemed like forever.

“I missed this,” Kevin said, and Sami blinked at hearing his own thoughts echoed. Kevin closed his eyes and sighed. “I’ve been so _tired_ lately.” A long yawn. “But now that bastard even took my phone and I can’t check Twitter, and… I’m not sure I mind so much, really. It’s nice to just talk with you.”

Sami’s phone lit up with a text from Tye Dillinger: _There’s been a bit of an altercation at the hotel gym with your boy._

_My boy?_ Sami sent back, amused.

_Owens,_ Tye’s next message read, and Sami frowned, reading on.

“What is it?” Kevin said. “I know that look, something’s wrong.”

“Your double got into a fight at the gym. Apparently he’s been there working out for two hours and tried to punch someone when they told him it was closing time.”

“Two hours in the gym?” Kevin sounded amazed. “That dude really _is_ evil.”

“Shit,” Sami blurted out as a thought occurred to him. He tossed his phone at Kevin. “Quick, log into Twitter and change your password before he gets into your account.”

“Huh? Oh _fuck,_ yeah,” Kevin said as the same thought seemed to hit him. “Thank God he’s been too busy wanking off in the gym to do the same. There.”

“Apparently he’s doing Crossfit,” Sami said, catching his phone back out of the air.

“Of course he is,” said Kevin. “He’s evil.”

* * *

“You had the match last night,” Kevin said to his double. “So it’s my turn tonight. Shane said so.”

“I’m surprised you’re not too scared to wrestle,” Owens sneered.

Kevin looked confused. “Of course I’m not scared. I fucking _love_ wrestling.”

“At least it’s a house show so you won’t be risking my title,” Owens said.

_“My_ title,” said Kevin.

They glared at each other.

Shinsuke Nakamura didn’t seem at all rattled at the existence of two champions. “Which one gets kicked in the head tonight?” he said, pointing back and forth between them.

“I do,” said Kevin, raising his hand, then reconsidered. “I mean--well, I hope I don’t, but--”

“ _God,_ ” said Owens, and stalked off.

“You’ll do great,” Sami said, patting Kevin on the back.

“I’m excited,” Kevin said with a sidelong grin at him. “Shinsuke always gets the crowd into it, and there’s just something about the way he wrestles, it’s always like a dance to fight him.” He considered, taking a sip of the cup of soda he was holding. “Maybe a moonsault. Or--do you think I can still do a 450? I haven’t tried in years.”

“Whoa, whoa,” said Sami, though he couldn’t help smiling. “Don’t get too ambitious at a house show. You’ve still got that title to defend against Styles soon.”

“If I’m the one that gets to defend it,” Kevin said, looking suddenly worried.

“We’ll get everything fixed before then,” Sami said.

“Fixed.” Kevin grimaced. “But what if… what if I like being this way? I don’t need _him,_ ” he said under his breath, glaring over at where Owens was tormenting a random roadie. “ _He’s_ the reason we’re not friends anymore.”

Sami bit his lip. “Would you have done it differently, if it was just you?”

“I--” Kevin stopped suddenly, looking surprised. “I… don’t know,” he said slowly. “I wouldn’t have attacked you like that right after your win, I know that. But… we had some amazing moments, didn’t we? That moment at Wrestlemania, when we each grabbed that ladder and the _crowd_ , the crowd just lifted up like singing...” His voice trailed off and he gazed into space, his eyes shining.

“That was incredible,” Sami said, remembering.

“I don’t think I’d do it again,” Kevin said. “But I’m also not sure I regret it, if that makes sense.”

“Hm,” said Sami, because he wasn’t sure he wanted to agree. That moment at Battleground, when he’d felt the world crystallize, everything fading away but the feel of Kevin’s face in his hands. “Hm,” he said again.

“Fuck this, I’m bored,” Owens announced suddenly. “If I’m not wrestling, I’m out of here. I’ll be at the gym if Shane changes his mind and decides to give a _real_ fighter a match.”

“At the gym _again?_ ” Kevin shook his head, laughing. “What is _wrong_ with you?”

With an abrupt, vicious motion, Owens slapped the cup of soda out his hand. The room went quiet as he leaned into Kevin’s face. “ _You,_ ” he snarled, loathing twisting his features. “ _You_ are the reason I’ve never achieved what I could. _You_ are everything that’s holding me back. You destroyed my life! But I’m taking it back now.”

He turned and left the room, leaving Kevin staring after him.

“Whatever,” Kevin said after a moment. “I don’t need him either. I’m going to go out there and have a fantastic match with Shinsuke. It’s going to be beautiful. Maybe it’ll be as good as yours in San Antonio,” he said, glancing at Sami with a sort of shy pride. “I watched that and I wanted to sing, it was so good.”

“Oh,” said Sami, startled. “Thank you.”

“Wish me luck,” said Kevin. He held out his hand.

Sami shook it. “Good luck.”

* * *

“I don’t understand,” Kevin moaned as Sami moved the ice to his other shoulder. “It should have been great. How could the match only last two minutes?”

It had actually only been ninety seconds, but Sami decided not to correct him. “What happened?”

He caught a glimpse of Kevin’s eyes in the hotel room mirror, filled with disappointment. “I don’t know! He came at me and--there were so many possible responses for that move, and each one led to a beautiful match, and then I just--froze. There were too many choices.” He thumped a fist against the coverlet. “ _Any of them_ would have been good, but I couldn’t seem to…” His voice trailed off and he shook his head. “He was so _fast._ ”

On the bed next to Sami, behind Kevin’s back, Sami’s phone lit up. A text from Owens: _I told you he’d be shit without me._

Sami gritted his teeth and squeezed Kevin’s shoulder. “You’ll do better next time,” he said.

A new text message: _He’s nothing without me and you know it._

“What if it’s me that fights A.J. at Backlash, and he beats me in two minutes?” Kevin whispered.

Sami didn’t have an answer for that other than _it was actually ninety seconds,_ so he kept his mouth shut.

* * *

Sami was almost whistling as he headed for the locker room to change into his ring gear. He was tagging with Tye tonight against Owens and Baron Corbin, but even the prospect of getting beaten up by Corbin couldn’t quite dampen his mood. He’d driven with Kevin to the next town and stopped to buy pizza and argued about wrestling the whole way and it had been _fun_ , and nothing could make him feel--

A hand snaked out of a corridor and grabbed him by the elbow, dragging him into a dark hall. “Stay away from that pissant,” snarled Owens’ voice, rough with anger.

“Who, the other you?” Sami laughed. “What do you care?”

Something flickered in Owens’ eyes and he pushed Sami’s shoulder hard, sending him into the wall. “I don’t fucking care, you little bitch, you just _stay away from him._ ”

“Hey,” Sami said. “There’s no need to--”

“Get away from him,” came another voice, and Kevin was suddenly between them. “Get away from him,” he said again, and his voice was shaking but he didn’t falter.

Owens looked him up and down, and his lip curled in a sneer. “I’ll see him in the ring, then,” he said, and stalked off.

“Don’t let him get you anywhere alone,” Kevin said, looking after him, his back still to Sami.

“I could have handled him,” Sami said, “It isn’t like I haven’t kicked your ass plenty of--”

_“--Don’t let him get you anywhere alone,”_ Kevin repeated, glancing over at shoulder at Sami. There were beads of sweat at his temples. “Just don’t, okay? Promise me.”

“Sure, I guess,” said Sami, and Kevin’s shoulders slumped in relief. “Am I allowed to kick him in the face tonight, Kev?” Sami added teasingly.

“Oh yes,” Kevin said, and Sami was surprised at the vehemence in his voice. “Please do kick him in the face tonight.”

* * *

As it turned out, Sami didn’t even get the chance. Owens shoved Corbin aside to come at Dillinger like a charging bull, and Tye dodged him effortlessly. Owens did manage to get one bone-crunching suplex in, but Tye got to his feet in time to give him the Tye Breaker, and that was it. It was over.

Sami and Corbin met eyes across the ring and for a second shared a _what the fuck was that?_ look. Then Corbin shrugged-- _oh well,_ \--and sauntered out, leaving Owens crumpled in the middle of the ring.

“I don’t understand why he didn’t win,” Kevin mumbled drowsily as they drove to the next town--Sami had to do all the driving since Owens still had the driver’s license. “If I can’t win, he should still be able to. He’s got all that, you know, evil energy.”

“Hm,” said Sami. He was starting to have some ideas about what was going on, but he wanted to make sure he didn’t just start blabbing about them before he was certain.

“It’s such a shame,” Kevin yawned. “I know I could put on an amazing match against Dillinger, too. It could have been something special.” He rolled his head to the side and looked at Sami. “I wish I had my title,” he said mournfully. “It made me feel like I’d accomplished something.”

“You’ve accomplished a lot,” Sami said.

“Have I? Was it really _me_ that did it? Or was it all _him?_ ”

“It wasn’t all him,” Sami said. “I promise.” But Kevin just stared out the window at the night, and when Sami caught a glimpse of his eyes in the reflection, there was only puzzled pain in them.

* * *

“Thank God it’s me and not you that’ll be defending against Styles next week,” Owens roared, standing toe to toe with Kevin. The rest of the locker room was watching with various degrees of boredom and amazement. “You’d have just lost it immediately, the way you lost last night against _James Ellsworth_ \--you’re pathetic!”

“Oh, like you’ve been doing so well,” Sami blurted out before he could think better of it. He heard Kevin suck in a little gasp of air as Owens swung around to stare at him. “You haven’t won a match yet either. In fact, Kevin’s at least gotten a couple of pinfalls. All you’ve done is get pinned, and that’s all you’re going to do against Styles. You’re _shit_ without him,” he said savagely, deliberately echoing Owens’ taunting texts, and Owens went pale, his fists clenching and unclenching as he glared at Sami. Then he muttered a curse under his breath and stormed out of the locker room again.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

“I need Cody to answer my damn calls,” Sami said a little later as Kevin’s entrance music hit and he headed to the ring.

“Wait,” Neville said, putting a foot up on the locker bench and staring at Sami in amazement. “You’re not seriously thinking of trying to put them _back together,_ are you?” He peered closely at Sami’s face, then reared back, sneering. “You bloody are! I can’t believe this! You finally have a way to get rid of your worst enemy forever, and you’re just going to throw it away!”

The starting bell rang out from far off.

“Sami,” Tye said, “he does have a point. I mean, why would you want to lose Good Kevin? He’s fun to be around, he’s a good friend--you should be really happy about this.”

The bell rang again and the audience made a confused, disappointed noise. The match was already over. Dolph Ziggler’s music started to play.

“I know,” Sami said. “I know I should be.”

* * *

“I’ll be taking that title from you tomorrow, Kev.” A.J. Styles was all smiles, and Sami felt a sudden sneaking desire to punch him in the nose. 

“Not from me. From _him,_ ” Kevin pointed out. 

“Hey, as far as I’m concerned you’re both you,” Styles said, then looked upward in some confusion as the weirdness of the sentence sank in. “Whatever. The point is that I’ll be the US champion soon.”

Sami opened his mouth--to argue with him? To support him? He wasn’t sure--but whatever he had been going to say was cut off when Becky Lynch came charging into the common room.

“Evil Kev has been arrested!” she yelled.

It turned out that some brave or stupid fan had been making fun of him at the gym--mocking his recent defeats, noting that all the burpees in the world weren’t going to make him less of a fat loser--and Kevin had grabbed his phone and crushed it under a barbell.

“That’s--that’s terrible,” Sami said, although part of him almost wished he’d been there just to witness the glorious _crunch_. He put a hand over his mouth to stifle a giggle at the image of the obnoxious fan’s shocked face. “How awful,” he managed, hoping he sounded sincere.

“It _is_ awful,” Kevin said, and there was horror in his voice. “If he can’t make it tomorrow, I have to fight Styles at Backlash. And you know there’s no way I can win.”

“We don’t know that,” Sami said, but Kevin’s shoulders were slumped. 

“It’s no good,” he said. “I have all these great ideas, but I can never put them into action. I’m going to lose the title, and you know it.” He looked at Sami. “At least… at least I’ll get to hold the title one more time as I go to the ring,” he whispered. “Security will get it for us, and I’ll be able to touch it one more time before it’s gone.”

* * *

“Damn it, Cody, _pick up,”_ Sami snarled at his phone. “You arrogant bastard, you disgrace to--oh, hi Cody,” he said, changing tone quickly.

“What is it, Zayn.” Cody sounded both annoyed and tired.

“Look,” said Sami. On the other hotel bed, Kevin was staring at the ceiling. “I just need to know--Kevin can learn to fight again, right? Surely he can learn over time.”

Cody sighed. “No,” he said. “That’s the thing. Fragments can’t grow. They can’t change. He is what he is and that’s all he’ll ever be. Believe me, I know,” he said, and there was a weight of pain in his voice.

“Tell me how to find your stupid magic room again,” Sami said. Kevin sat up and looked at him, but Sami ignored him. 

“If they’re both looking for it together, they’ll find it,” Cody said. “But even after they find it, it’s...hard. Getting back together. It’s terrifying.”

“Can I go into it with him? What will happen to me?”

“You?” Cody laughed bitterly. “Trust me, you’ll be fine. You’re not-- you’re not the kind of person the room works on.”

Sami could feel Kevin’s eyes on him as he hung up the phone. “No,” said Kevin.

“What do you mean, ‘no’?”

“I mean, maybe I don’t _want_ to get back together. Sami, you don’t _understand._ ” Kevin sounded exhausted. “I’m not afraid, like this. I’m not terrified all the time. If you knew what it felt like--if you knew what you were asking--to take that evil back--”

“You’re _wrong._ ” Sami threw himself onto the bed next to Kevin. “You’re thinking about it all wrong. He’s not Evil and you’re not Good. He’s…” Sami groped at the air, trying to pull the right words from it. “He’s self-preservation, killer instinct. He’s the part of Kevin Owens that kicks and screams and refuses to give up.”

“And what am I, then?”

_”Creativity._ ” Sami leaned in close, desperate to make him listen. “You’re all the style and originality and grace, you’re the desire to not just win but win _well_ and beautifully, to impress the crowds, to create art. Without his killer instinct, you’re paralyzed by your imagination. Without your vision, he’s just brute strength. You need each other,” Sami finished. “Alone, you’re just going to get fired eventually. You’ll never have another great match, you’ll never hold a title in your hands. _Is that what you want?_ Because Kevin, that’s not what _I_ want.”

* * *

When Owens saw the two of them outside his cell, he stopped pacing to stare at them. “Come to gloat?” he snarled, grabbing the bars in his fists. “I will fucking kill the both of you when I get out of here, you--”

“I’ve posted bail,” Sami said as the guard unlocked the door. “Come on, we’re going.”

“You’re lucky your friend and your brother are looking out for you,” yawned the guard as Sami grabbed one hand and Kevin grabbed the other.

“What the fuck,” Owens said blankly as they dragged him outdoors. 

“We’re re-integrating you,” Sami said, and Owens laughed harshly.

“Why the hell would you do that? You’ve got _him_ now, you’ve got the friend you always wanted, the nice cheerful Kevin to match nice cheerful you, and--”

“--Shut up,” Sami suggested, and amazingly Owens did. “I’m feeling neither nice nor cheerful right now, buddy. It’s time for the hard truth, which that you need each other, and… and I need you. I need you both,” he said, looking at Owens. “I need the creator and the killer, I need the gentle and the fierce of you. Together. I need my enemy back. I need my friend back. I need my Kevin back.”

“He means it,” Kevin said softly into the odd silence that followed.

“I can tell he fucking means it,” said Owens, staring at him in something like wonder. “What an idiot.”

“He’s afraid,” said Kevin to Sami, and Owens went white. “He’s afraid of everything.”

“Am _not,_ ” snarled Owens.

“We’ll never be able to be friends like you and I are now,” Kevin said to Sami, ignoring his double. “Not with that fear back in me.”

Sami stopped and rested his free hand on Kevin’s shoulder, making a triangle of them. “But you’ll be able to grow,” he said. “There’s a possibility of change. A hope of something better. I’ll take that hope anyday.”

Two pairs of gray eyes looked at him for a long moment. Then Kevin said, “I can feel the door to the Star Room. It’s this way.”

“Yeah,” said Owens, and started off, dragging them both with him.

It turned out to be a very ordinary-looking door in an alley, half-hidden behind a dumpster. “Are you sure?” said Sami. They both nodded. Kevin tried the handle and it didn't budge. Owens tried, with still no luck. They looked at Sami.

Sami touched the handle and the door to the Star Room swung open.

* * *

It was pitch black at first as they shuffled inside; Sami could feel Owens’ hand trembling in his. Then one pinpoint of light appeared in the darkness, followed by another; delicate constellations blooming, merging into galaxies, vast whorls of stars shining in the darkness. There was a bright crystalline ringing noise, soft at first, but slowly growing into a hum that Sami could feel in his bones.

With no warning, Owens started to sob.

“I can’t do it,” he said, sinking to his knees on the floor. “I can’t do it, I have to go, I can’t--” He tried to lurch upward, but his knees gave out and he sank back down. “I’m so afraid,” he sobbed. “I’m so afraid all the time and I can’t stand it.”

Kevin just stared down at him. “I don’t know what to do,” he said.

Sami knew, but he didn’t know how he knew, or how to say it. “You have to--” The weird starlight picked out his hands in the dark as they waved about and came together. “--embrace him. You know.”

“Like, literally,” Kevin said over the sound of his doppelganger's weeping. “Hug him.”

“Literally and figuratively. Kevin, he’s _you,_ ” Sami said.

“Yeah,” Kevin said. “That’s the problem.”

“He’ll hurt me,” Owens wailed, and Kevin inhaled and went to his knees as if he’d been stabbed. Owens crawled forward and wrapped his arms around him, burying his face in his shoulder. “Please don’t let him hurt me, you don’t understand, I have to keep him from hurting me, I have to hurt him first, I always have to hurt him first.”

“Who? Brock?” Sami said. “Triple H?”

Kevin looked at him over Owens’ shaking shoulders. “No,” he said. Bending closer to Owens, he murmured, “He doesn’t want to hurt you, you know.”

“We can’t know, we can’t know,” Owens sobbed. 

“God damn it,” Kevin said helplessly. “You poor pathetic bastard.” After a moment, he put his hand on the back of Owens’s head and pulled him closer, his fingers gentle and a look of terrible pity in his eyes. He rocked back and forth, cradling his own crying self in his arms. He looked at Sami, and the light of galaxies was in his eyes; they were clear and sad. “You deserve a better me,” he said.

“I only want the one of you I’ve got,” Sami said. “All the good and bad and ugly together.”

“Lots of ugly,” Kevin said softly, looking down at himself.

“Sure,” said Sami. “What the fuck ever. I’m fine with that.” Without thinking, he sank to his knees and put his arms around both of them. Owens flinched and made a small wailing noise, then settled into steady weeping.

They crouched there together in the dark, surrounded by nebulae and quasars. The humming music, like a cosmic lullaby, made it hard to think after a while. Sami realized they were lying on the floor together. He was very sleepy.

“I want you to be whole,” he said. He wasn’t sure Kevin could hear him above the music, so he said it again, and then again, and then he just thought it as hard as he could.

The walls opened up into the music and they drifted in the stars.

* * *

Sami woke up abruptly, the floor cold against his side. He sat up. He was in some kind of storage closet, the walls bare cinderblock.

There was just one Kevin asleep on the floor.

He was smiling a little, the tiniest curve to his mouth, and his brow was unfurrowed and clear. He looked peaceful and young, and suddenly Sami felt a pang of panic: This was _Kevin,_ just Kevin, and Owens had slipped away in the night and abandoned him.

“That son of a bitch,” Sami said without thinking, and Kevin’s eyes opened, his face immediately going wary and guarded and _familiar_ , beautifully and blessedly familiar.

“Oh, it’s you,” he snapped, as if he’d hoped Sami would be gone when he woke up. 

“It’s me,” said Sami simply, beaming at him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Kevin muttered, getting to his feet. He patted his own body as if checking himself. “Do you think it worked?”

“I guess we’ll find out when you take on Styles,” said Sami, but he already knew. He knew from the way Kevin held himself: dangerous and graceful at the same time; from the expression on his face, bright and brutal at once. “Good to have you back,” Sami said without thinking.

“Don’t get sappy on me, you loser,” Kevin said.

And then he smiled at Sami, still sitting on the floor, and held out his hand. 

_The possibility of change,_ Sami thought. _The hope of something better._

“Good to have you back,” he said again with all his heart, and took Kevin’s hand to be pulled to his feet.


End file.
